


Ten Minutes

by daisybrien



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-23
Updated: 2014-10-23
Packaged: 2018-02-22 06:02:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2497193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daisybrien/pseuds/daisybrien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They might not remember each other right away, but that doesn't mean they've ever forgotten. Sometimes it just takes a few minutes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ten Minutes

**Author's Note:**

> Reincarnation AU where they remember who they were ten minutes after they see each other in every new life. Written for someone who is now a very dear friend of mine.

The waiting area is hot and brightly lit. People walk around, some talking to each other as they arrange their carry-ons out of the way of the aisle. Parents tend to their fussy toddlers, warning children not to wander off. Some look out of the massive windows that span from floor to ceiling, staring at the airplanes taxiing across the tarmac. Others sit on the hard chairs lined up in long rows, either looking through documents, on their phones, or trying to catch a few winks of sleep.

Hange sits, facing the window, squinting at the bright summer sun glaring through the glass. She clutches on to her ticket for dear life, terrified at the though of losing it. She is jittery and excited and all kinds of nervous; despite being almost twenty-five, she has never been on a plane before.

 

“Are you excited?”

Hange turns to respond to the voice. Nanaba lies across three seats, holding her phone over her head, occasionally jerking her head to one side, as if it could help her progress in whatever game she’s playing.

“I’m a little nervous,” Hange confesses, even though it was a major understatement, “but I’m more excited than anything else.”

Nanaba snorts. “Of course you are,” she laughs, “you’re always the hyper one. I can’t believe that you have never flown before. But I’m glad that you wanted to come back to Germany to visit my family with me. I can’t stand the thought of doing that alone. You know how they always give me an extra ticket, hoping that I bring home some guy or something. At least the ticket isn’t going to waste.”

Hange sighs and turns her face away, looking back to the window as another airplane lifts off the runway. It’s not as if she had completely agreed without Nanaba’s constant persuasion, but it would be a new opportunity for her. She would get to see a whole new country and meet new people. However, she didn’t think she would be able to enjoy it right now with the amount of butterflies in her stomach.

A feminine voice sounds through the building. “Flight 279 is now boarding,” it declares in a monotonous voice. Several people start rising from their seats, checking and double-checking that they have all their belongings.

Nanaba jumps up, gathering her few possessions she was bringing on the flight. Hange’s heart starts palpitating as her friend grabs her wrist and pulls her up off the seat.

“That’s our flight,” she says, and drags Hange away from the window. She tries to calm her breathing as they walk, Nanaba having to pull her to make sure she keeps up. Hange keeps her head down, staring at the ground as they walk, letting Nanaba lead her. She tries to take deep breaths and dries her sweaty palms on her trousers. She shakes from her nerves.

You’re going to be okay, she tells herself, you’re not going to crash, you’re safer in an airplane than in a car, you’re going to be okay…

All of a sudden, the wind is knocked out of her as something collides with her. She almost falls to the floor; her knees buckling and hands flailing in an attempt to keep her balance. Her glasses are knocked off her face, and the thing – no, person – that collided with her faces her.

“Oh my god,” Hange starts, despite being disoriented, her vision blurry. “I’m sorry, I should’ve looked where I was going, that was my fault…”

She stops, seeing the person crouch to the ground and extend a hand towards her. She reaches out to find that the person is holding her glasses. The world around her comes into focus as she repositions her glasses on her nose again, and finds herself staring into the greyest, most piercing eyes she has ever seen.

“Sorry,” the man says uncomfortably. His hair is pitch black, and his face seemed to have a permanent scowl on it. “I’m in a rush, excuse me.”

He swerves around her and keeps walking, the sound of his luggage rolling on the tile floor getting quieter as he leaves. Hange’s eyes follow him, staring a hole into his back as he walks away. Nanaba tells her to hurry up, once again dragging her by one hand towards their gate. Hange feels as if she is in a daze, the man’s image seeming to have tattooed itself to the back of her retina.

One minute.

They stand outside the gate while Hange bounces on the balls of her feet, too agitated to keep still. A flight attendant checks their ticket.

Two minutes.

They walk through the large metal doors into a dreary hallway. The sounds of shoes rapping against the floor create an unorganized rhythm. Quiet voices echo off the walls and into their ears.

Three minutes.

A flight attendant with a crisply ironed uniform and a high-pitched voice greets them, her hair in an impeccable bun and her face contorted in an unnerving, large smile that would scare a small child.

Four minutes.

Hange steps over the threshold and into the cabin of the plane. She attempts to calm her breathing, and tries to ignore the crushing feeling of her claustrophobia. A thousand worst-case scenarios rush through her head at a dizzying speed. She grabs the back of Nanaba’s jacket, letting her lead her down the aisle and around the small masses of passengers loading their carry-ons above their seats. Nanaba slows down at each row to check the number.

Five minutes.

They slowly make their way to the back of the cabin, the aisle significantly less crowded as they reach the end. The noise of bickering spouses and agitated children follow them down the long stretch of the lane. Finally, Nanaba stops. “These are our seats,” she states, gesturing towards the sturdy seats next to the window. They heave their bags over their heads into the overhead compartments, Hange losing her grip and almost knocking out a balding man passing by. Passengers brush past them, grazing the back of their coats.

Six minutes.

The air in the cabin starts to get hotter as more people fill the cramped space. Hange lets Nanaba into the window seat. She doesn’t want to have to see how far they lift off of the ground. It will only add to her panic. Hange reclines her seat and breathes deeply. She closes her eyes and sees the man’s piercing eyes staring back at her.

Seven minutes.

Hange calms down, her breathes slow and even. She inches the back of her seat up to let a family of four into the seats behind her. One of the wives sit in their on the seat closest to the aisle, leaving Hange sandwiched between her and Nanaba. She hears a baby cry at the front of the cabin as people start settling into their seats, while most of the passengers haven’t even gotten on.

Eight minutes.

Hange jumps as sound bursts from the intercom. The pilot’s voice booms through the air, declaring that their take off would be delayed by half an hour. Various passengers start complaining, and stewards and stewardesses walk down the corridor, trying to make sure that everyone is comfortable. “There’s always a delay,” Nanaba mutters beside her, “and it’s always twice as long as they say it’ll be.”

Nine minutes.

The sun glares through the window. Hange squints as she looks beyond her friend’s face and out the window, watching distant jets taxiing across the tarmac. Her mind drifts off, her imagination creating images of massive giants hidden in thick, green foliage. She can almost feel the wind flying through her hair as she glides through the air, a familiar figure beside her, with raven black hair and those piercing eyes that she swears she has seen before…

Ten minutes.

It takes ten minutes for her to remember.

The memories hit her like a ton of bricks, her chest constricting as they all come flooding into her brain. She feels as if her head will burst open. Visions of blood and death flit through her mind alongside images of towering walls, monsters with large, thick teeth and the faces of long lost loved. And within those visions she still sees him, her Levi, with the same irritated face, the same comfort he brings with his presence, the same love she feels for him, and it’s all too much for her brain to process at one time.

“Hange? Hange what’s wrong?”

Nanaba’s voice brings her back to reality. She realizes that she is doubled over in her seat, her breath ragged. She turns her head to see her friend’s face inches from her, her brow furrowed and her eyes wide with fear and apprehension.

Hange jumps from her seat and almost smashes her head on the low ceiling above her. She stumbles into the aisle, climbing over the woman beside her. She starts walking down the rows of seats. Nanaba stands up, tripping as she tries to follow her.

“Hange, where are you going?!”

She doesn’t answer. She makes her way back to the front, back to the door they entered from. She blocks out the stares of the other passengers and Nanaba’s yelling behind her. The only thing on her mind is Levi; she needs to see him, needs to make sure he is still real, that he is still breathing, still living, still has his blood pumping through his veins instead of splattered across the bark of aging trees.

“Hange, what the fuck are you doing?”

She stops abruptly, turning around to face her friend. Seeing Nanaba behind her makes her want to break down into tears of joy; she realizes that Nanaba isn’t dead, she isn’t going to die again like she did before, she’s going to live a full and happy life. But right now, she has someone else on her mind.

“I need to get off the plane.”

The answer is simple, but the passengers who have taken their seats look at her incredulously, some with expressions of worry and even compassion on their faces. When Hange turns back again, she finds a flight attendant blocking her path.

“Ma’am, I need you to sit back down in your seat, please,” she chirps. It irks Hange. Every time she tries to find a way around the woman she finds her path cut off. Her explanation falls deaf on the stewardess’ ears. She feels the eyes of everyone on the plane staring holes into her back; they probably think she’s insane. Frantically, her eyes dart across the faces of the few passengers that have boarded, looking for expressions of reassurance and understanding. Instead, all she sees are looks of confusion. The stewardess turns to another attendant and tells her to call for security.

Hange’s eyes glance to the open door to her left; it’s still open, and clusters of people continue to trickle through it into the cabin. She has only one chance to get out. She steps back and darts to her left, tripping through the seats that run down the middle of the plane and emerging into the left aisle. She rushes to the open door and pushes past those who congregate at the entrance. Nanaba calls after her, the words meaningless to her.

She sprints down the tunnel, the sound of her feet thumping against the floor echoing off the walls. She swerves around the others who walk in the opposite direction, ignoring them as they turn around to stare at her. Her heart pounds uncontrollably and her chest rises and falls with laboring breaths as she flies across the threshold and back into the waiting area. She staggers as she tries to slow herself down.

“Levi!” Hange calls, her voice cracking in her desperation. She snaps her head left and right, looking for that one familiar face. She screams for him again and again, starting to lose hope, unable to find his face in the sea of people in front of her.

“Hange?”

Her eyes light up when she hears his voice. Her head turns in all directions, ponytail swishing back and forth, looking for the source of the sound. Then she hears it again, somewhere distant and to her right, and she runs towards him and the husky melody of his voice.

She sees him, his eyes searching for her, a hand dragging through his hair. Their eyes meet, and relief and joy and love flood through every inch of her body. They run towards each other, crashing together in a tangle of limbs, their knees thudding against the ground. Hange melts into his embrace, and starts swaying with him to the rhythm of their heartbeats. She presses her face into Levi’s chest, sobbing with joy, her fingers grasping onto the back of his shirt desperately, like a drowning man holding onto a piece of driftwood. She feels one arm wrap around her waist, another running through her hair as his lips press against her temple.

They disentangle themselves from each other’s grip, Levi’s hands cradling her chin as they stare into the each other’s eyes. They press their foreheads together, her arms winding around his neck.

Levi’s mouth forms a small smile, tears forming in his eyes. “I missed you,” he murmurs, right before their lips come crashing together into a needy kiss that leaves Hange dizzy.

She knows that very soon she’ll have to let go, that they both have a plane to catch, and he will have to leave her with nothing but his cell phone number and an address in some town she will probably not recognize. But she pushes those thoughts out of her mind, remembering her friend’s words, knowing that the delay will take twice as long. For now, she just savours the feeling of being in Levi’s arms again, and the thought of being able to finally build a life together that was free of the death and destruction that had plagued them before, but filled with love and safety and one another’s presence.

**Author's Note:**

> What a surprise, another old thing from my tumblr account. Hopefully you guys aren't getting sick of seeing my stuff in the tags.
> 
> This was based off a headcanon that a friend had made during the last levihan au week. (God bless Sara oh my goodness gracious). Also, since it was suddenly getting notes again, I wanted to post it here. Hope you enjoy it!


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